It Will Get Better
by Pikminsanity
Summary: AlphxBrittany oneshot. Alph's pov. A flashback to what happened during the Plasm Wraith battle. Obviously, SPOILERS FOR PIKMIN3! Oh yeah, and it'll probably make you cry. Rated T for character death. Kind of full of coding text for the fonts and stuff that after a year and a half I still haven't fixed. Oops.


p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"We all have something we wish weren't true. We all have wishes that can't come true because something happened that we don't approve of, but we can't reverse time and make it better. Every person can't have everything they want. We can't always hold onto the one thing we want when danger lies all around us./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"For me, it was Brittany I wanted to save./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"But I couldn't. Wishes like these don't often come true. And even when they do, it's never easy. My wish could never come true. I have been living with this loss and it pains me to this day, every moment of every day./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"-strongFLASHBACK/strong-/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"My legs shook, I could barely stand. But that THING was right behind us; I had to pull myself forward if I was going to get out of this place alive./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"The transparent blob slowly crawled ahead; it always seemed to know where we were. Or rather, where the Hocotatian, Captain Olimar was. What did the life-form even want with Olimar? It seems all Olimar wants is to return home./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"emI couldn't blame him. That's what I want too. If only the Mysterious Life Form would let us take Olimar, we could get our cosmic-drive key back and then we /emcould emtake Olimar back to Hocotate./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"emFinally, /emspan style="max-height: 999999px; text-decoration: underline;"strongfinally /strong/spanemwe found an exit. "Brittany! Lead the Pikmin over here!" I called. Brittany was leading the ten Pikmin carrying Olimar./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emCome here, Pikmin!" I heard her call. Slowly but surely the Pikmin caught up to us./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emNow," said Captain Charlie, "Let's teach this crazy glob of goo a lesson!"/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emMy gosh, Captain, you do realize how NOT normal that sounds, right?" I had to ask with a light chuckle. Sure, it was probably a bad time, what with this gooey monster chasing us and all, but I just had to ask./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emWe are on an alien planet being /emchased emby a crazy glob of goo, Alph," Brittany reminded me, as though I needed reminding. "Of course it's going to sound weird."/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emOkay guys, seriously," Charlie cut in. "Are we exiting this cave or not? Are we saving Olimar or not? Are we gonna freakin' get home OR NOT?!"/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emYes, yes, and yes," I blurted, suddenly scared. I'd never seen Charlie get like that./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emBut you don't have to say it THAT way," Brittany added, irritated. She seemed to know just what I was thinking. "Now let's move!"/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"It was only seconds later that the Mysterious Life Form recaptured Olimar. Not one of us noticed./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"emCharlie had gotten upset because he thought Brittany's comment meant she thought she was in charge. She claimed to be innocent, but we all forgot where—and when—we were because Charlie started an argument. All Brittany wanted was for Charlie to stop screaming in her ears (her words, not mine) and all I wanted was for them to stop arguing so we could get out of this stupid cave. (Now those are /emmyem words.) But no one seemed to notice./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Then the glob sneaked up behind Brittany... and swallowed her up. (For lack of a better word)/em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"The only thing she said was my name. Actually, she screamed it, but it was still my name./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Charlie and I ran for our lives. Soon I whipped myself around to see that the glob had disappeared, taking Olimar with it, but leaving Brittany on the floor, lying flat on her face, and statue-still./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"My own body froze as my mind raced, thinking of all the possibilities. After all we don't really know what that glob thing is capable of./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I gave Charlie all the Pikmin I had. That was my only response to the fact that a golden, humanoid "Plasm Wraith" had appeared behind him. I ran over to where Brittany lay, I turned her over and sat her up. I tried to quiet my breathing to see if I could hear hers. I did./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Faintly./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emBrittany, are you okay?" I asked softly. Worry filled my voice and tears blurred my vision. I tried to blink them away so I could see her./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Her eyes opened, just barely. "I don't think so," she said between coughs. I noticed a small crack in her helmet. The oxygen levels on PNF-404 were dangerously high for Koppaites; Brittany had said so herself. "Alphie, this might be one of the worst times to tell you, but who knows if I'll be able to any other time..." she whispered./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emTell me now, I'm listening," I barely got the words out; my throat got stuck; I was about to cry."/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emAlphie, I..." Her face turned pink. "I've loved you ever since I met you."/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emActually Brit," I murmured, "so have I."/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"My tears rolled down my face. She slowly reached her arms out to embrace me, and I did the same./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"That one moment, in the midst of all this tragedy and worry, that one moment when she told me she loved me and then she hugged me, made me feel special. It didn't last long, I wished it could, but it couldn't. I continued to cry./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I wanted to save her; I wanted to bring her home but there was nothing I could do. As time passed, she was able to get less and less breathable air and what could I do to prevent that?/em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Then... she died in my arms./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I refused to believe it. But there was nothing I could do; there was nothing I could have done. I replayed the events of the day in my head. We found the exit; Brittany and Charlie started arguing... Oh./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"As soon as the memory of that scene came to mind, I wanted to blame Charlie. He was overreacting and unconsciously putting us in danger./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I glanced over to where he was, not making eye contact. I noticed several missing Pikmin as the captain continued to fight to save Olimar. Part of me wanted to help him. But the rest of me wanted to stay still and pay no attention to anything until it was time to go. That part of me won the argument and I stayed where I was./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Even if it was Charlie who was going to determine what "time to go" meant (either, to go into low orbit as usual if the Plasm wraith was not defeated by sundown, or to go into space and take Olimar, and then ourselves, home), I was too exhausted and too upset to move./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Our captain would defeat the Plasm Wraith himself, and I would lie on the ground and cry myself to sleep. It makes me sound soft and cowardly, but I had just lost someone I truly loved, and I was afraid the Wraith would take me too./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"Maybe... I pondered. Maybe if it does then I'll get to see Brittany again./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"What was I trying to say? I shook the thoughts from my mind and told myself, Alph, you're going to go home and make everyone proud./p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I eventually awoke to find myself in the same place I fell asleep. Charlie was standing behind me, waiting for me to get up so we could go home. "Oh, so that Plasm thing is gone?" I must have sounded so stupid./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emUh, yeah!" Charlie said, a hint of irritation in his voice./em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""emHey, go easy on him," another voice said. It was Olimar. "He only just woke up, after all."/em/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"So Charlie, Olimar and I boarded the S. S. Drake and took off./em/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"-strongFLASHBACK END/strong-/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I can still remember the whole thing as clearly as if it were yesterday. The shapes of the many hostile creatures we met on PNF-404 continue to haunt me in my dreams, hide themselves in my doodles, spot my vision and confuse me. They seem to be threatening to take my life, or the lives of those I care about./span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"I still haven't faced Charlie about this situation. I still believe he is to blame for Brittany's death. He is, if you think about it the way I did. Some may believe it is no one's fault but the Mysterious Life Form itself. Some might even blame me, for not trying to find a way to stop the dangerous air from getting to her. But honestly, what could I have done?/span/p  
p style="max-height: 999999px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"All I can do now is try to look forward to the rest of my life, to the future. To hope things will get better and I will be happy again. For now I may be struggling, but I can be sure that it won't be this way forever. I may wish that I could have gone back and changed the past so Brittany could be with me now, but I can be sure that someday, I will be with her again. Each day I remind myself that she would want me to be strong. Each night marks another day gone, another day closer to... whatever life throws at me next. All I want is to be ready to face it, knowing that Brittany would encourage me to do just that./span/p 


End file.
